WeChat crosses 1b account mark

BEIJING • China's ubiquitous WeChat social media platform has crossed the one-billion account mark as its messaging, game and shopping services attract more users.

The symbolic threshold was announced by Mr Pony Ma, the chief executive of parent company Tencent, on Monday. The figure compares with 2.1 billion monthly active users on Facebook and 1.5 billion on its messaging app WhatsApp.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Payout for eugenics victims under study

TOKYO • Japanese lawmakers pledged yesterday to study compensation measures for some 16,500 people, some as young as nine, who were forcibly sterilised under a eugenics law that remained in force until 1996.

The issue hit the headlines earlier this year after a Japanese woman, now in her 60s, sued the government over a sterilisation operation carried out in 1972 when she was diagnosed with a mental disability.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Sharp drop in India child marriages

MUMBAI • The proportion of girls getting married in India has nearly halved in a decade, the United Nations children's agency Unicef said yesterday. Officials attributed the drop to better access to education for women and increased public awareness on the negative impact of child marriage.

REUTERS